Dan Waldschmidt is a speaker, author, consultant and researcher. He’s been profiled in Business Insider, Business Week and Inc., and his book Edgy Conversations is scheduled to be published in March 2013.

But he doesn’t consider branding a part of his success, because it’s more of “a lifestyle than anything else,” Waldschmidt told us.

“I still reject this whole idea of branding. It’s branding when it’s on the side of a piece of beef,“ he said. “It’s hard to change. But life changes.”  At the age of 12, Waldschmidt started a lawn mowing business and by 19, he was the youngest sales manager for Sears when “Sears used to be Walmart.”

We recently caught up with Waldschmidt for his tips on how to be recognized as a thought leader in your industry. Here’s his advice:

1. Maintain a blog. “In 2005, I started blogging as a CEO,” Waldschmidt says. “I wrote about how lonely it was to be CEO.”

“When I wa! s in sal es, I was a hotshot and everybody loved me. When I became CEO, it was lonely so I started writing about some of these radical thoughts.”

Waldschmidt writes in his blog a few times a week and told us that he’s usually writing 15 posts at a time. If someone ticks me off, I write about it,” he said. “I’ll write the title, then I’ll think up the contents.”

2. Choose a voice—and stick to it. “Usually when I write something, it’s the exact opposite of what the other experts are saying,” he said.“And I see if I can back up the exact opposite of what they say.” At first, you will let the people who doubt you affect your own work, but after awhile, if you’re doing something right, those people will eventually need you, he maintains.

“They need the guy like me who puts everything out there and finds the solution for everyone else.” To set yourself apart, you need to have a specific voice, but don’t stress too much on holding on to this voice, because at some point, you voice will change.

3. Work really, really hard. “There’s a lot of ways to brand yourself,” Waldschmidt said. “For me, I have a relentless pursuit of getting it right.” And to become successful, he said that people need to stop thinking that the world owes them, because “no one owes you anything.”

“Get out there and make something of yourself. When you get knocked down, get back up.”

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